Runs well, easy to understand and fun to play around with.
I am thinking of the design possibility space this recursive mechanic unlocks. Without a recursion limit, I think this corresponds to having infinite space, but just more difficult to manage.
In terms of game design, I couldn't find a satisfactory approach for a coherent game loop. I think your mechanic does not unlock fertile ground either on top of Shapez.
Thanks for sharing this impressive experiment! Well done!
I didn't find the controls super intuitive. Some things I did not immediately understand include:
- needing to drag from the edges of machines in order to add belts to them
- not being able to use delete to remove belts
- Delete can be deselected by right clicking
After some time I figured it all out.
I really enjoy the puzzliness, I like how the machines have a hint explaining their usage. I enjoy the difficulty scaling although I do feel like I often had to tear down a design for the next level which felt like a shame.
I wonder why the level ends after 30 of a shape are delivered because it seems like there is a hard cap on throughput determined by the number of sources. Maybe in an expanded version of this game optimization would be more emphasized.
One wish I had was that you could make a longer belt in one action like in shapez.io
Bug report: it is possible to place a 3x3 grid on a color producer. You can then delete the grid, but that deletes the color too. And connecting a belt on the grid does not work.
Really cool game though, I like the scaling with the grid. I'm just salty that bug made me lose the campaign at level 10/10 :(
Thank you for the bug report! This is a result of some two-hours-before-deadline coding - we added the ability to replace existing tile with a different one without explicitly deleting it, because it proved handy while testing, and forgot to exclude the case of replacing the color source. It’s an easy fix, but we’ll have to wait until the jam ends.
I’m happy you liked the game, and sorry again for the bug!
I almost quit the game within 3-4 minutes because I couldn't figure out how to place pipes in the scene, but I'm so glad I stuck with the game to figure it out. After learning how it works mechanically, this has been my favorite game of the jam thusfar. I played through the campaign and was really impressed with the depth you can get out of the game. Watching the contraptions in motion moving boxes around is intensely satisfying. The game still needs a little polish. The placement system is unintuitive and even with practice stuff like placing only one pipe at a time or accidentally erasing entire zoom grids were common issues during my run of the campaign. That said I still think the game is excellent.
Here's a screenshot of my final grey box factory, btw.
Sorry for the controls, I agree they could’ve been better, but we focused on the mechanics and balancing first. Really happy you took the time and gave it a try!
That’s a beautifully-arranged factory you’ve got there :)
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Very cool! Feels very polished for a jam project!
Runs well, easy to understand and fun to play around with.
I am thinking of the design possibility space this recursive mechanic unlocks. Without a recursion limit, I think this corresponds to having infinite space, but just more difficult to manage.
This is a design area I've experimented in: https://ttrkaya.itch.io/zoomer with my custom engine just like yours!
In terms of game design, I couldn't find a satisfactory approach for a coherent game loop. I think your mechanic does not unlock fertile ground either on top of Shapez.
Thanks for sharing this impressive experiment! Well done!
great game :)
the simplistic style is great. i struggled with the controls a bit.
a great addition to the conveyor belt gmtk24 game jam genre😎
I didn't find the controls super intuitive. Some things I did not immediately understand include:
- needing to drag from the edges of machines in order to add belts to them
- not being able to use delete to remove belts
- Delete can be deselected by right clicking
After some time I figured it all out.
I really enjoy the puzzliness, I like how the machines have a hint explaining their usage. I enjoy the difficulty scaling although I do feel like I often had to tear down a design for the next level which felt like a shame.
I wonder why the level ends after 30 of a shape are delivered because it seems like there is a hard cap on throughput determined by the number of sources. Maybe in an expanded version of this game optimization would be more emphasized.
One wish I had was that you could make a longer belt in one action like in shapez.io
Brilliant. I do not like much the use of colors, but being a game jam is more than superb. Congrats!
Would you make a commercial version?
Very fun game, and a good challenge.
Here is my final factory with the extra restriction of only using a single level of embedding:
Wow, very nice! It looks satisfactorily clean! :)
Bug report: it is possible to place a 3x3 grid on a color producer. You can then delete the grid, but that deletes the color too. And connecting a belt on the grid does not work.
Really cool game though, I like the scaling with the grid. I'm just salty that bug made me lose the campaign at level 10/10 :(
Thank you for the bug report! This is a result of some two-hours-before-deadline coding - we added the ability to replace existing tile with a different one without explicitly deleting it, because it proved handy while testing, and forgot to exclude the case of replacing the color source. It’s an easy fix, but we’ll have to wait until the jam ends.
I’m happy you liked the game, and sorry again for the bug!
I almost quit the game within 3-4 minutes because I couldn't figure out how to place pipes in the scene, but I'm so glad I stuck with the game to figure it out. After learning how it works mechanically, this has been my favorite game of the jam thusfar. I played through the campaign and was really impressed with the depth you can get out of the game. Watching the contraptions in motion moving boxes around is intensely satisfying. The game still needs a little polish. The placement system is unintuitive and even with practice stuff like placing only one pipe at a time or accidentally erasing entire zoom grids were common issues during my run of the campaign. That said I still think the game is excellent.
Here's a screenshot of my final grey box factory, btw.
Sorry for the controls, I agree they could’ve been better, but we focused on the mechanics and balancing first. Really happy you took the time and gave it a try!
That’s a beautifully-arranged factory you’ve got there :)